2024-05-10 17:52:12
The FDP continues to be dissatisfied with Pension Package II. The party’s main focus is on a smaller increase in pension contributions and an expansion of stock pensions.
The FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag does not want to agree to pension package II in its current form and is demanding significant improvements from the SPD and the Greens. “I currently don’t see that the pension package will be passed in this form in the Bundestag,” said the Parliamentary Managing Director of the FDP parliamentary group, Torsten Herbst, to the “Bild” newspaper on Thursday. Specifically, he called for a smaller increase in pension contributions from 2028 and an expansion of the so-called stock pension.
“The gap between gross and net salary must not widen any further,” said Herbst. “Furthermore, equity pensions must be given much more weight.” According to the FDP politician, it could significantly relieve the burden on the system in the long term and at the same time ensure a secure pension system.
According to the report, the FDP parliamentary group is also discussing an end to pensions at 63 and a voluntary increase in the retirement age. Both could also be negotiated into the pension package, it was said.
Pensions must be secured for all generations
The deputy FDP chairman Johannes Vogel told the newspaper that pensions must be secured for all generations. “If the pension contributions in the pay-as-you-go system for the working middle class simply continue to rise, there will be less and less net of the gross and higher ancillary wage costs.” The coalition partners should have no interest in this either.
The FDP financial expert Maximilian Mordhorst told “Bild”: “We cannot compensate for our demographic problem with ever increasing burdens on the working population.” Addressing Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), he added: “This is nothing scientifically complex, these are the basic arithmetic that a Federal Minister of Social Affairs should also be able to master.”
Pension package should come in May
The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Finance led by Christian Lindner (FDP) agreed in March to partially fund the statutory pension insurance. The pension level is to be set at 48 percent for the period after 2025 to 2029. The contributions are expected to increase in the medium term, to 22.3 percent by 2035. However, there have been calls for improvements from the ranks of the FDP for a long time.